Political Quotes

“we are debating the Transportation bill, so let me say a few words about transportation. I think everybody in this country--or at least anybody who gets into an automobile and drives around--understands that we have a major infrastructural crisis in this country and that it is becoming more dire each passing year. The American Society of Civil Engineers has reported that we should be investing $2.2 trillion over the next 5 years simply to get our roads, bridges, transit, and aviation to a passable condition. This is more than eight times the annual rate of spending proposed in the bill under consideration. The first point I think we should acknowledge is that the legislation before us, which I support and which is significantly a step forward, is a very modest proposal going nowhere near as far as we should be going. Clearly, I see when I go home to Vermont, and I am sure you see when you go home to Pennsylvania, the very apparent infrastructural needs we as a nation face. In my State of Vermont, just under one-third of Vermont's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. About one-third of Vermont's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Thirty-six percent of our Federal aid roads are in need of major repairs.…”